A/N: Hello everyone. Here begins the story of Ellen Cartwright, the fifteen year old Earth girl who impressed a queen dragon in The Law Of The Weyr. Hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Reviews are appreciated and missed when absent.

Disclaimer: The Dragonriders of Pern is a registered trademark of and copyrighted to Anne McCaffrey. This is fan fiction and garners NO MONEY WHATSOEVER for the author.

Chapter One

Patricia Cartwright dismissed her advanced Musical Theory class and saw a sight that made her wonder. Through the window she saw a blue dragon land and his rider dismount. The rider strode toward the administration center.

She shook her head in wonder. What was a dragon doing at Boston University? There were no dragons assigned to Boston at all. None were really needed in that the complexes where dragons stayed had full communications equipment. There were only three on the North American continent; San Francisco, Philadelphia and Oklahoma City.

She dismissed it as irrelevant; she had papers to grade.

She had just completed the second paper when her pocket link beeped. She looked at it and saw a summons to report to the Administration building, Room 101.

Room 101 was the office of the University president. What could the president of BU want to see her about? She had totally dismissed the dragon from her thoughts and was thinking back on any mistake she might have made. It would have to be a big one for the president to get involved. She couldn't think of any major mistakes she had made. Then she thought of the dragon. 'Could I have inadvertently done something wrong while teaching the Pernese harpers that reflects bad on the university?'

No, she decided. Her teaching there had been textbook perfect. Well, the only way she was going to find out was to go to the president's office.

Upon arrival, she was told to go in; she was expected. She entered the office and saw the president sitting behind his desk and what could only be a dragonrider sitting in one of the guest chairs.

"Patricia Cartwright reporting as directed, sir," she said.

The president nodded to the rider.

"Patricia Cartwright, my name is J'rol, rider of blue Silith. I bring news of your daughter, Ellen."

"Ellen?" Patricia had to reign in her mind. This couldn't be good. "Is she alright?"

"Quite alright, Ma'am," J'rol replied. "It is my pleasure to inform you that your daughter has impressed a golden queen dragon. Her dragon's name is Saylath. Both your daughter and her dragon are doing quite well."

Patricia sank down into a chair in relief. "Thank you for coming in person to tell me," she told the rider.

"It was not a problem at all, but a pleasure to convey such happy news," J'rol said. "Now, if you will excuse me, I need to get back. Again, congratulations on your daughter's impression."

"If you need some time off," the president began, "I'll be more than happy to grant some vacation time."

"Thank you, sir. I'll take it. I'll need to book passage on an N-space liner going to Pern. I'll let you know when I'll be leaving. Two weeks leave should be sufficient."

"That's fine," the president told her. "I hear being a dragonrider is beyond the average person's comprehension."

"From what I've been told, that's the truth," Patricia answered. "They say the rider and dragon can always feel each other. I was actually afraid my daughter had been injured, as from what I was told a baby dragon can injure those who stand in their way when they are trying to get to their chosen person."

"Well, let me be the first Terran to congratulate you. I've studied their culture and from what I read, the riders of golden dragons are leaders. You must be very proud."

"Actually," Patricia said, "I didn't want my daughter to stand as a candidate. She's only fifteen, but a dragon saw potential in her and deemed her worthy."

"I read about that rule," the president told her. "Seems kind of irresponsible if you ask me, leaving such a life changing decision to a person that young."

"Well, it seems that if a baby dragon can't find a suitable partner, either in the candidates present or the viewing audience it will suicide by teleportation."

The president looked at her in shock. "What!? That's got to be one of the worst things to ever happen."

"It is," Patricia told him. "Which is why they have that rule in the first place. It's probably outdated now, but I can imagine a time far in the past when it happened and they vowed it would never happen again if they had any way to prevent it. So they made sure that every suitable person was given the opportunity to stand no matter what their parents' thought."

"Old habits do die hard," the president said. "Well, let me know when the liner leaves. And have a good reunion with your daughter.

Patricia thanked him and left the room.

The passenger shuttle set down in the bowl of Benden Weyr. It had been decided that all passenger shuttles would first go to Landing, mainly as a way of earning revenue for the dragonriders as they took passengers from offworld to wherever they needed to go, but an exception had been made in this case when the captain of the passenger liner Kiev had requested that the shuttle be allowed to drop one passenger off at Benden Weyr.

The captain had been a big fan of Patricia Cartwright when she was still on the concert circuit. When he had learned that she was on his ship he knew he had to meet her. When he heard of the reason she was traveling to Pern, he decided to curry favor with his former idol by requesting this passenger be delivered directly to Benden Weyr. Since her daughter was a queenrider weyrling, F'lar had acceded to the request, even going so far to allow other passengers to disembark at Benden, if they had business at the Weyr.

Patricia Cartwright was the only passenger that disembarked. She was met by an older man who had a scar running down the left side of his face. "I'm T'ring, the weyrlingmaster," he said. "You must be Patricia Cartwright."

"Yes, I am." So this was the man who was instructing her daughter in her training. "Since you're here to meet me, I assume my daughter isn't in training classes."

"No. She hasn't started actual training yet aside from the basic care and feeding of a hatchling. Right now she is performing a task for her dragon. If you will come with me I will take you to the dining cavern where we can wait for her."

"Why can't you take me to her now?" Patricia asked. "If she's washing or feeding her friend, I won't interfere."

"I don't think it would be a good idea," T'ring told her. "Her dragon is asleep at the moment. She is preparing food for Saylath."

"That's fine. What's so bad about cooking food?"

T'ring chuckled and started walking toward the dining cavern.

"I don't think you understand," he told her. "She isn't cooking. She is preparing food. Dragons eat raw meat. She is in the process of cutting raw meat from a carcass, after which she will cut up the larger chunks into smaller bite-sized pieces."

"That's barbaric!" Patricia exclaimed.

"It would seem so to non-weyrfolk," Tring allowed. "But a dragon must have raw meat to grow. A weyrling is required to prepare the necessary food for his or her dragon, until the dragon is able to hunt for themselves. We do this to teach weyrlings that they are ultimately responsible for and to their dragon. It's also a way of teaching them that their dragon comes before all other considerations. And if they didn't do it, someone else would have to. I personally wouldn't have trusted someone else to do it right and get the pieces small enough so Tolarth wouldn't choke." They had reached the dining cavern and T'ring gestured toward an empty table.

"I guess," Patricia said, sitting down. "It's just we have food synthesizers where I come from."

"And from what I've heard, they don't get the flavor of meat quite right." This from F'lar who had walked up behind them.

"Weyrleader. It's good to see you again," Patricia said.

"And you as well. T'ring reports that your daughter is an excellent student who seems very serious about her training."

"She's a good girl," Patricia replied. "I see the weyrwoman got her wish."

"What do you mean," F'lar asked.

"When Ellen was to stand for the first group of eggs, she told me she would rather my daughter be a queen candidate."

"Well, I agreeded with her. Canth, the dragon who searched your daughter, has a knack for picking queen candidates who impress. I was actually happy that your daughter didn't impress that first time. No offense intended, but I think she would have been wasted on a green."

"What's wrong with greens?" Patricia wanted to know.

"Nothing," F'lar told her. "They are just as important as any other dragon, but they have the lowest rank. And a rider's rank follows the dragon's. I couldn't put my finger on it at the time, but your daughter seemed very self-assured. I was not at all surprised that Saylath chose her, even though she wasn't born here. We have a saying: The dragon knows."

Just then, Ellen came hurrying in carrying two huge buckets. One, heaping full of meat and one empty. "Mom! You came!"

She sat the buckets down and hugged Patricia who had stood the moment she saw her daughter rushing through the entrance. "It's so good to see you. I'm so glad you came."

"I told you I would when I got word you had impressed. Sorry it wasn't sooner, but I booked passage on the first liner available."

That's had been one of the constants in Ellen's life before her impression of Saylath; If her mother said something, she did it.

"We'll leave you two alone," F'lar said.

After they left, Ellen pulled out a belt knife and began cutting hunks of meat into bite size portions with which she started filling the empty bucket.

When she started doing this, Patricia said, "T'ring told me you had to cut that off the carcass of a dead animal."

"I did, Mom. It seemed a little gross at first, but after impressing Saylath, it's a labor of love. I've never felt such gratefulness as when I feed her." Ellen's voice had gone warm and soft as she thought of her Saylath.

'I was wrong to want to keep this from her,' Patricia thought. Aloud, she said, "You're besotted with her."

Ellen nodded as she continued to cut up meat. "I am. She's the most important thing in my life. She's a part of me. And I of her. In candidate's class, we were told that a rider will often suicide if the dragon dies. I was stunned. But I now understand. I wouldn't want to live without her and wouldn't condemn anyone for ending their life if their dragon died before them."

"You can't be serious, Ellen." Suiciding just because the dragon died? This bond went far, far deeper than she had first thought.

"I'm completely serious, Mom. I'm not the same person I was before she looked into my eyes. I'm somehow more than what I was. And just the thought of going back fills me with panic."

Patricia looked at her daughter, calmly cutting up chunks of meat, that the girl had, a short while ago, cut off of the carcass of a dead cow, and saw an adult. Not in body, for the body was that of a fifteen year old girl, but in her eyes, the set of her face and mouth, the way she held her body. And Patricia could tell, from the way she performed the task, that it was indeed a labor of love.

"So," Patricia asked, "how did you know I was here? Surely you don't come here to cut up meat?"

"When I had finished, the weyrlingmaster's dragon, Tolarth, told me that you were here. It was kind of surprising that he spoke to me. He usually only speaks to his rider. And the dragons he trains, of course."

"Well, since yours is asleep, T'ring probably asked him to," her mother said.

Ellen finished cutting up the last hunk and stood. "I need to get this to Manora so she can put it in the cold room until Saylath wakes up."

All of a sudden her eyes unfocused. Then she looked at her mother and said, "Come on. Looks like I won't need to see Manora after all. Saylath is awake and hungry."

Patricia followed her daughter to a large room. There were twenty or so beds with large connecting platforms, all but two of which were unoccupied. On one a young green dragon was sleeping. Near the other was a young golden dragon. Ellen went straight to her friend and began feeding her.

Patricia looked at the dragon her daughter was feeding and shook her head in wonder. The thing was almost three times the size of a horse. And it was obvious that the creature adored her daughter."

Hello. Thank you for bringing her to me.

Patricia looked around. "Did you say something, Ellen?"

"No. That was Saylath. She actually spoke to you." Today was full of surprises.

Why wouldn't I speak to your mother. She's important to you. So she's important to me. Don't worry about her. I won't let anything happen to her. This last was spoken directly to Patricia.

"That's what you hear when she speaks with you? That's incredible!"

"It goes much further than that, Mom. I can feel her. Her emotions, her needs."

Patricia just shook her head, her eyes wide.

"Soon you'll be able to hunt on your own, sweetheart." she told Saylath in a loving tone.

"Sooner than you think." They turned around and saw that T'ring had stepped in. "She should be ready to hunt on her own anytime now. I would suggest, after she digests, of course, seeing if she can get off the ground on her own power. Just a few feet. Nothing drastic. Just enough so she can hunt on her own." Now he spoke directly to Saylath in a gentle tone. "You'll be surprised how much better it tastes when you kill you own, little one."

Patricia now saw why losing one of these creatures was something they wanted to avoid at all costs. They were treated like well loved, valued children.

Patricia followed her daughter and Saylath down to the lake and watched her daughter bathe her lifemate. 'She looks just like a mother caring for a beloved child,' Patricia thought. She hadn't noticed the oil pot the girl had hung around her neck by a sturdy cord until Ellen removed it and began lovingly rubbing oil into Saylath's hide. She had a small smile on her face and a dreamy look in her eye as she oiled her dragon.

She gave a final swipe with the oil cloth and gave the dragon a loving pat on the neck. Saylath crooned in contentment as they walked back to the female weyrling barracks.

After Saylath was asleep, Ellen said she needed to go cut some more meat for the next meal.

"I thought you were going to see if she could fly a little when she woke up," Patricia said.

"We will," Ellen answered. "But I want to have food ready for her in case she can't. When I get this next meal done and stored in the cold room, I need to get some sleep."

Patricia nodded. As happy as her daughter seemed, she did seem a bit tired. But then, taking care of a growing dragon and feeding yourself would most likely take all your waking hours.

A/N: That's it for this chapter. I was going to split this into two chapters the first ending after Patricia's meeting with the University President, but I decided that that would be just a bit too short for a chapter. Don't forget to review. See you next chapter.